Re-claiming the borders

Helping the clients maintain and enjoy their garden

Site: A mature garden in Moseley, Birmingham, with large trees, and a lawn that slopes gently away from the house.

Brief: Make the garden really colourful; Improve the soil; make it easier to maintain.

The framework and shape for the garden was by a previous designer, who didn’t provide a full planting scheme. However, the difficult and stony soil meant the clients couldn’t maintain and enjoy the garden as they wished.

I worked with them to reshape the borders, removing stones, clay and roots and replacing it with new topsoil. A new planting scheme brought in lots of colour, with a focus on perennials to provide colour and structure year after year. This brought back enjoyment in the garden and removed the maintenance problems.

The garden is poorly drained, which is always a problem for climbing plants. To tackle this I designed planters to be created around existing pergola posts, with new well-drained topsoil. These were painted black to add visual interest.